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Uygur Muslims - Swamped by Han Influx
Antoaneta Bezlova
KASHGAR, Xinjiang Province, Nov 29 (IPS) - The
evening light dances on the glazed pink tiles of the
shapely buildings around the ancient Idkah mosque and
in the enfolding dusk the site evokes tales from the
'One thousand and one nights'. But the illusion is
fleeting -- none of the buildings in this spot, except
for the revered mosque, is more than a few years old.
In broad daylight the exotic shapes of the building
are revealed as ersatz creations furnished with
minarets. The intimacy of old jam-packed curio shops
has been replaced with the uniformity of cavernous but
still empty shopping malls.
The once teeming bazaar lanes and overloaded stalls in
front of the Idkah in this city on the fringes of
China's western Xinjiang province have been cleared
away to make space for a large empty square.
"The new city centre is more beautiful than the old
one," insists Askaer, a local communist party official,
who comes from the Muslim Uygur minority in western
China and uses only one name. These new buildings may
not be original but they make the city look modern and
attractive to tourists, he says, effectively parrying
questions about the value of authenticity.
For centuries the Chinese had fought for control of
this city with its riches of silks, spices and other
luxuries. They sought to rule over these remote
western lands inhabited by independent-minded Uygurs
for they were a vital corridor of land connecting
China with central and southern Asia and distant
Europe. This famed stop on teh ancient Silk Road once
had bustling bazaars where more than ten languages
could be heard.
Now it seems Beijing is closer than ever to achieving
its goal of stamping its seal of authority on the
place. It is rebuilding the old Kashgar with an eye on
attracting tourism, but with its ubiquitous central
square and gaudy new buildings the city resembles many
other modernised Chinese cities.
The majority of the people -- some 90 percent --
living in Kashgar are Uygurs. Their daily existence
though is being exoticised by the immigrant Chinese as
one of that mystical and different "other" in a case
worthy of Edward Said's study of contemporary
Orientalism.
The Kashgar government's model tourist project takes
visitors to the cramming streets of the ancient city
where they can peep into crumbling houses and observe
the daily rituals of the locals -- like brewing their
tea, baking the traditional flat nan bread or
embroidering long scarves.
The houses open to visitors -- 21 out of some 640
households, have been selected because the owners are
well off and their homes retain some of the old city's
charm of sunny terraces and flower-filled yards. The
rest, as the young girl that serves as tour guide
admits, are too poor to be visited.
The locals are also too poor to benefit from the new
gaping malls in the city square as the rents for shops
are beyond their means. Where once local vendors could
set up their stalls outdoors virtually for free now
they have to compete to lease commercial space with
more affluent Han traders coming to sell cheap
consumer goods from inland China.
In Hotan, another ancient city and stop on the Silk
Road, the local tourist project showcases silk dyeing
and carpet weaving by hand. It is a brilliant photo
opportunity where all the dozen jobs or so are done by
local minority people. Yet, merely a throw away, the
flashy Yudu hotel advertises jobs for receptionists
and waiters stating explicitly that only "Han" Chinese
are wanted.
The jobs that are to be had come at a steep price for
Muslims. Batur Abdula who works for the Hotan
municipal government had to give up wearing a long
beard and stop going to the mosque because the Chinese
authorities frown at civil servants that practice
religion. Does he pray at home?
"My wife and mother-in-law pray. I don't," he says,
smiling uncomfortably.
This tough economic reality holds true for much of
Xinjiang, a vast region of 20 million people. Many of
those living there are Turkic-speaking Muslims like
the Uigurs and Kazakhs. Since last year however, the
Han Chinese have come to dominate the population mix.
Now more than half of Xinjiang people, some 11 million,
are ethnic Han Chinese.
Many of the immigrants arrived with the communist
armies of Mao Zedong, after 1949, to capture and keep
this restive land under control. Many more came in
pursuit of Xinjiang's economic riches.
Kashgar lies on the western fringes of the Tarim basin,
which has an abundance of oil and gas that has been
attracting ever-greater waves of Chinese immigrants
since the discovery of reserves in the late 1950s.
A 4,200-km pipeline, which originates in the Tarim
basin and crosses six inland provinces before reaching
Shanghai, was designed in the late 1990s when Beijing
embarked on a ‘Go West' campaign to facilitate the
exploration of the region's riches. The 14.5 billion
US dollar project -- now complete, transports natural
gas from Xinjiang all the way to the East.
Tarim's significance has increased incrementally as
output from other Chinese oil fields like Daqing,
which had been pumping oil since the 1950s has
declined. China's state oil giant, PetroChina, expects
production of its Tarim oil field to rise 50 percent
this year to the equivalent of 15 million metric
tonnes of crude, from 10 million tonnes in 2005.
Overall, the region's projections for energy capacity
are bright. Because of its location, which positions
it as the natural route of any pipeline from the
Central Asian states, Xinjiang is now being developed
as China's biggest centre for the petrochemical
industry.
Plans for at least three oil and gas pipelines from
Central Asia and Russia crossing Xinjiang have been
announced as China intensifies its quest to secure and
diversify energy supplies for its fast growing economy.
Uygurs however, remain deeply sceptical of how these
new bright prospects would improve their economic lot.
"Wherever there is oil and money you only see Han," is
how one local from Hotan appraised life in Xinjiang.
"Labour is imported from the East and profits are
exported to the East," Elizabeth Economy, a China
scholar and director of Asia Studies at the U.S.
Council on Foreign Relations, told IPS. "The people of
Xinjiang are unlikely to benefit from this development,
unless things are done in a new way."
While oil giants like PetroChina assert that 28
percent of their employees in various projects in
Xinjiang are from ethnic minorities, such are hard to
find on the oil fields and gas stations. At Lunnan gas
station, which marks the beginning of the pipeline
carrying gas to Shanghai and Beijing, not one of the
hundred workers and engineers is a Uygur.
The rise of Xinjiang in China's big energy picture
means that Beijing needs to tighten its grip on this
politically volatile region to ensure transportation
security of vital energy projects. This is bound to
increase the influx of Han Chinese into a territory
already heavily militarised, and where antipathy for
the government's religious and minorities policies is
on the rise.
Unrest and Muslim fundamentalism in neighbouring
Afghanistan and Pakistan have contributed to a
resurgence of Islam in Xinjiang. But the global war on
terror has provided regional authorities with an
internationally viable reason for deploying more
police forces and exercising even tighter control over
religious practices.
Inside the province, resentment among Uygurs toward
perceived repression by the Chinese is palpable. But
it pales in comparison to the prevailing sense of
economic marginalisation felt by non-Han ethnic groups.
(END/2006) ...
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